In the freestyle world, symmetrical skis like the Liberty Helix 88 have a special place. For true park and pipe competitors, the Helix 88 is about as real as it gets. For years, Liberty has been making some of the smoothest and best freestyle skis on the planet, and this 88 is no different. They use a blend of their construction technologies to go along with a pure freestyle shape and profile to deliver some of the best park skis out there. It makes sense that Liberty would make a ski like this, and since they continue to do so into 2024 allows us to access the wonderous beauty and simplicity of a true two-way ski. With similar shape and profile from front to back, this ski appeals to the inner-park rat in all of us. As more of a competitive ski rather than an all-mountain ski, the Helix 88 is more at home in the biggest jumps and steepest pipes that the mountain has to offer.

Built with Liberty’s Speedcore Carbon construction, we get a blend of poplar, paulownia, and bamboo wood in the core. Bamboo has a lot of silent properties to it, so it ends up being a very quiet ski. The Paulownia lends energy while the poplar keeps it powerful and predictable. On top of the core, Liberty adds two strips of carbon to stiffen the ski, and then the whole thing is wrapped in two layers of fiberglass to provide more snap and pop to the mix. This is especially helpful in the park world, as it allows for extra boost off of the jumps and lips. Liberty also does a great job keeping things quiet with the use of Polyurethane in the sidewalls. The vertical manner in which this material is used provides a silent and smooth feel overall. In the 175, this build produces a 1650-gram weight per ski, making it easy to maneuver both in the air and on the snow.

As a twin tip, we see equal splay on both ends. The symmetry of the flex, rocker, and taper make it an easy ski to ride both normal and switch, and this lends to easy takeoffs and landings on both sides. Measurements of 118/88/118 ensure this multi-directional nature, making the ski as freestyle oriented as they come, and especially in a competition format. There’s classic camber throughout this ski, and while we may call it a bit of rocker in the tips and tails, for all intents and purposes, this is a fully cambered ski. And there’s kind of a lot of it. When you put the ski base to base, the camber definitely jumps out as an overarching theme of the ski. While it’s not necessarily a ski that’s meant to be used elsewhere, it’s still easy enough to turn to make it all-mountain capable.

The strength, though, is in the park and in a competitive format. This keeps it squarely in the range of advanced and expert skiers who are doing most of their skiing in the terrain park and half pipe. In those realms, the 2024 Liberty Helix 88 is a prime-time performer—capable of the biggest jumps and most grandiose spins. Whatever axis you choose to perform your tricks upon, the Liberty Helix 88 is the ski that’ll get you there.